FDA just had a stupendous win in its battle against stem cell clinics
The FDA claimed these clinics were plying patients with an illegal drug derived from their stem cells. A federal court agrees.
Just as it began to seem that the battle against pseudoscience in medicine was being lost, a federal appeals court in San Francisco delivered a huge win for the Food and Drug Administration on its science-based regulation of stem cell clinics.
The three-member panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that the FDA's definition of processed stem cells as a "drug" was correct. The judges also accepted the FDA's definition of its authority to regulate clinics offering purported stem cell treatments.
"The FDA's interpretation... is the only interpretation that makes sense," wrote Judge Jennifer Sung in her portion of a two-part unanimous ruling announced Friday.
The ruling is important for the FDA's campaign against medical clinics offering unproven treatments using patients' stem cells.
Hundreds of such clinics have sprung up around the country, luring customers with claims that their treatments can address conditions including Alzheimer's, arthritis, cancer, macular degeneration...
